Crew
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Austin Smoak
Creator / Dir. / Pro. / Cinematographer
Austin has always been fascinated with other cultures- since the age of 16, she has had the opportunity to travel to many places and get to know first hand the differences and similarities between many cultures. When she discovered the Vampire culture that existed right here and the States and all over the world she saw a great opportunity to combine her love of various cultures with her love of film making.
A graduate of Florida State University's Film School, Austin's main focus is on Cinematography and Writing. At Florida State- Austin had the opportunity to learn Cinematography from Rex Metz, ASC. Throughout her career as a camera assistant and operator, she has had the chance to work with many other great Cinematographers and Hollywood legends including: Sandi Sissel, ASC, Patti Vanover, ASC, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Morgan Freeman, among others.
As a Cinematographer, she has had the opportunity to work on many great projects both narrative and documentary. Her narrative work includes the feature film, Claire with Dan Ast, David Schatanoff and Kareem Hennawy as well as work on several commercials, successful webseries and short films. Austin's next narrative project is as a Director of Photography for Tim Driscoll's feature film, The Lengths.
Her documentary work in Cinematography includes work for BBC, Germany's Galileo and PBS- which includes work for NOVA and the upcoming show Rescue Me.
Austin has loved working with this amazing team of people on Vampires and is excited to share it with everyone.
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Dan Ast
Director / Producer / Editor
Dan has been making movies for about half of his young life, starting with VHS Camcorders and tape-to-tape editing mixers up 'til the "shoot-it-and-cut-it-on-your-phone" present-day. He loves editing and has cut a variety of short films, documentaries, feature films, DVD features and a TV pilot working both as a freelancer and also for Warner Brothers Studios. His time spent editing has given rise to a great variety of editing beverages, among his favorites being "Editing Tea," "Editing Beer" and his favorite: the "Editing Bloody Mary."
Dan has fallen in love with New Orleans during the filming and editing of "Vampires" and is proud to be apart of Austin's documentary examination of this fascinating culture.
Dan has just locked editorial on "East Stackton," a short film shot in Louisiana, and he's excited to take a whack at his next feature film editorial venture "The Lengths." Dan also has a passion for writing and directing. He is currently gearing up for pre-production on his second feature, while his first feature "Claire" is in it’s final stages of post.
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David Schatanoff Jr.
Producer / Sound Mixer
David Schatanoff, Jr. is among the new breed of producers. He can navigate the feature film and TV worlds, but has also familiarized himself with the the growing need for quality web based and ancillary market producers. After moving to Los Angeles in 1997, he started his career in the world of post production. For the last 15 years, David has worked on various projects; from the 20th Century Fox feature Heartbreakers to the Internet sensation Ryan vs. Dorkman II: RVD2, he has the ability to work within any project budget and size.
He still enjoys the occasional sound effects build or production audio mixing job, when he is not busy playing video games or drinking leftover "Editing Beer" with Vampires editor / swiss army knife Dan Ast. "I like working with Dan. Eventually we'll get to the point where we can play video games and drink 'Editing Beer' from our trailer instead of my living room."
His latest feature film production, Claire (dir. Dan Ast), is scheduled for release in 2012. Other current 2012 projects include, Help… I’m Alive! (dir. Justin Berger), East Stackton (dir. Sean Farina) and Night N Day: LA, a new travel web series. Vampires marks his first time producing for creator Austin Smoak.
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Kareem Hennawy
Editor / Camera Operator
As far back as he could remember, Kareem Hennawy always wanted to be a filmmaker. In high school, he would edit class projects and spend free time at home editing amateur music videos to get better acquainted with non-linear editing software. While attending Florida State University's Film School, he discovered a passion for cinematography and camerawork that has never quite abated. He's since worked with a variety of cameras and formats, contributing on everything from short and feature length films to travel footage and reality shows. His influences include Roger Deakins, ASC/BSC, Wally Pfister, ASC, and the late, lengendary Conrad Hall, ASC. Now residing in Los Angeles, Kareem is currently pursuing post-production and camera work both professionally and as a freelancer.
Kareem counts crew members and fellow FSU alumni Austin Smoak and Dan Ast as close friends, having worked with them previously on the feature film "Claire" prior to making the journey to New Orleans for "Vampires."
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2771739/
Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/kareemh
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kareemhennawy
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Tim Driscoll
Camera Operator
I am a filmmaker and an award winner (I won my fifth grade homeschool spelling bee).
Prior to this endeavor I directed a documentary about missionaries in Africa, a litany of commercials, two music videos and the successful web series, “The Unemployed”. I also co-authored and directed two shorts which were official selections to the Doorpost Film Festival (2007 and 2009).
I am left handed and dyslexic (it took me four hours to write this). I blame my mother's Catholic guilt and my father’s Jewish guilt for my insecurities and the sarcasm I use to hide them. I have curly hair which my mother says the girls will love. I, and many other girls,disagree. I do not mind talking about myself but I do not like writing bios or in this case autobios.
